Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds
By Stephen Kinzer
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
252 pgs. US$25/C$39.95
America's mysterious ally
By Steven Martinovich
web posted October 8, 2001
As the title of Stephen Kinzer's Crescent and Star: Turkey
Between Two Worlds suggests, Turkey is a microcosm of the
struggle between the Western and Islamic worlds. It is a nation
of occasionally bewildering contradictions that has both
fascinated and repelled the West, seen throughout history as
alternately barbarous and cultivated. As Kinzer aptly illustrates,
Turkey is a nation of the East that looks towards the West for its
future, it is a democratic nation with a horrible human rights
record, and one that wants a presence on the world stage while
being distrustful of foreign political influence.
Modern Turkey as we more or less know it was born in 1923
when Kemal Atatürk launched what was essentially a one-man
revolution to overthrow the remnants of the Ottoman Empire.
His aim was to introduce a secular republic wedded to reason,
one that promoted freedom and equality for all Turks. As history
has witnessed countless times, however, not all revolutions end
up fulfilling the dreams of their instigators. Fearful of Atatürk's
legacy being destroyed by the very people he wanted to free,
Turkey's military has created a state only somewhat less
repressive then it was under the Ottoman Empire.
As Kinzer relates, for most of the Twentieth Century Turks have
been largely supportive of the restrictions placed on them by
what they consider to be a benevolent military filling a vacuum
left by poor political leadership. Wary of the destabilizing
influences of ethnic strife because of a large Kurdish population
and religion, Turks have put up with successive military coups
and political intrigue that has done little to unshackle them. They
have patiently supported the suppression of what are considered
to be divisive voices - journalists, Muslims, Kurds and leftists not
surprisingly fit into that category - to safeguard a republic that
straddles Europe and the Arab world.
That may have changed on April 19, 1999 when an earthquake
devastated Turkey and revealed a political order more
concerned about looking in charge then aiding its citizens. That
earthquake had a profound social, political and cultural effect
and led Turks to question their institutions, ones that have held it
is more important to protect the idea of the state then its
individual citizens. Grassroots aid efforts convinced millions of
Turks that they did not need their state to carry out massive
actions, perhaps giving birth of a nascent libertarianism.
As Kinzer writes, what was good for the figurative children of
Atatürk isn't being fully accepted by his grandchildren. Today's
Turks are asking questions about their nation's past - including
the massacre of untold numbers of Armenians in 1915 - and are
less willing to accept personal and political limitations. The
country's Muslim leadership, which had grown increasingly
radical during the 1980s, has moderated its voice and - along
with Kurds - are looking to create a more inclusive state. The
average Turk, says Kinzer, wants to fulfill the unrealized potential
of a talented nation. Ultimately, he says, people have come to
believe that unity can only be achieved by embracing others.
A cynic might say that Turks have traveled a long way to end up
in the same place but Kinzer is supremely confident about a
nation that he obviously is in love with. Kinzer maintains that if
any country can prove that Islam, democracy and modernity can
co-exist, it is Turkey. It has the potential to be an example to the
Muslim world and a respected member of Europe but only if its
political and military leadership can be convinced that Turks
won't destroy the legacy of Atatürk. Whatever its future may
hold, Kinzer has crafted a marvelous study of where Turkey
stands today and the path he hopes it will take in the coming
decades. His love letter to Turkey needs to be read by anyone
who wants to understand better a nation which is the one of the
West's closest allies and yet also one of its greatest mysteries.
Steven Martinovich is a freelance writer in Sudbury, Ontario.
Enter Stage Right - http://www.enterstageright.com